With almost 59,000 supposedly registered to vote, Utah’s Republican caucus could have ranked as the largest online turnout for US presidential nominations ever, beating the record set in Arizona in 2000. But rather than a glimpse into the future of the democratic process in the US, the experience for some voters was one of frustration, as they reportedbeing stopped from making their choice by error messages, pages that wouldn’t load, and confusing web design.

“I must have tried eight or nine times without success,” would-be voter Greg Ericksen told Utah’s Deseret News, after error messages said his information was incorrect. Others were stymied by the state’s electoral website, which suffered under extreme traffic for around 90 minutes on Tuesday night, according to Utah’s director of elections Mark Thomas. More than 1,000 Utah residents called a helpline set up by Smartmatic, the Florida-based company orchestrating the election, with problems they had encountered while trying to vote.